1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording method and an ink jet image, and in particular to an ink jet recording method that provides images superior in terms of smoothness, glossiness and fastness and to ink jet images obtained thereby.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasing demands have been made in recent years for an ink jet recording method providing images that are superior not only in terms of image quality (e.g., of high-definition and bright color tones), but also in terms of glossiness and weather resistance.
Various techniques have been proposed for this purpose. For example, an image-forming material has been proposed that is permeable to gas and liquid before recording thus enabling image recording but also forms a surface protective layer, which after recording provides the material with a variety of properties such as weather resistance, light fastness, friction resistance, and water resistance. An ink jet printer has also been proposed that converts a thermoplastic laminate layer on the surface of an ink absorbing layer into a liquid-impermeable transparent layer by heat from its heating means [e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 9-70960]. In this case, plate heaters are used as the heating means. However, although the liquid-impermeable transparent layer plays a role as a surface protective layer, it cannot provide the entire image-forming material including the surface protective layer with a sufficiently high degree of glossiness.
In addition, some references disclose techniques of heating image carrying recording media after image recording (e.g., Japanese Patent Nos. 2,908,518 and 3,103,429, and JP-A No. 11-291611), claiming that such techniques provide favorable images while suppressing cockle and partial pealing off during recording. Although images can be obtained which have a smoother surface and are free of defects such as cockles, weather resistance, (including ozone resistance and light fastness) of the resultant images is still not satisfactory.